File Hosting: a request and an offer

We've had cases where someone wanted to share a large file, and as a result the file became unavailable and/or someone ended up paying more for it than necessary.

We can do better than this. I am considering hosting large files for members here via bittorrent if there's enough interest. Please post here with comments.

What it is: Bittorrent is a distributed filesharing system. Basically, every machine that downloads a file is also uploading the file at the same time. This allows client machines to share the load with each other, rather than placing all the load on a server's bandwidth.

How to use it: the easiest way is to download the client from www.bittorrent.com and install it -- it'll run as soon as you try to open any file with a name that ends in .torrent

I prefer the http://azureus.sourceforge.net client, and am currently using this to try and host files here locally.

What I need in order to get this running: I'd like some people to go to http://66.80.73.52:6969 (that's my laptop) and click on one of the torrent links there (Stolen Honor is there if you haven't seen it yet) or just click on the attached file. The goal here is to see whether everything is configured properly on my system. If it works, please leave the bittorrent client up for a while.

If it looks broken, let me know and I'll tinker with it in the morning.

Thanks!

If you enjoyed reading about "File Hosting: a request and an offer" here in TheHighRoad.org archive, you'll LOVE our community. Come join TheHighRoad.org today for the full version!

stv

October 24, 2004, 06:48 PM

Completed last night and am currently seeding. :)

Ringer

October 26, 2004, 05:30 PM

Laptop no longer online?

Derek Zeanah

October 26, 2004, 06:01 PM

Back up now. ;)

Now that it works, I'm inclined to install a tracker on a server that can host your .torrent files, though it won't actually host the data files. Sort of give THR users a place to coordinate file sharing.